A slave in Carthak
by HeartDancer
Summary: Daine is a slave in the emperor's palace, after being captured at Dunlath. When Numair and Alanna come to make the peace treaty in Emperor Mage, she is the slave who waits on them but she can't go with them... D/N
1. The Meeting

This is my first ever fanfic, so be nice, please. Also, does anyone know how to put in a description? I don't understand...

What if Daine was captured at Dunlath, and sold as a slave to Carthak, in the emperor's palace. Then, when Emperor Mage takes place, Daine is forced to be the slave tending to Numair's, Alanna's, and Duke Gareth the younger's rooms? However, when they finally recognize her (she has been beaten into submission, and so has lost her characteristic fieriness), she can't leave because of her terror and Ozorne's threats. Also, Numair has realized he loves her, while she was missing, and she is terrified about it.

After Wolf Speaker, during the beginning of Emperor Mage—

He couldn't stop thinking about her. It was always like this, since she had disappeared, but today was very bad. It had been a year since Daine had gone missing. She had been in Dunlath, blocked from the rest of the world by a barricade of magic, when the barrier had come down suddenly. As soon as it had, he had gone looking for his student, his magelet. She was nowhere to be found. Kitten, Tkaa, and the squirrel she had made friends with, all couldn't find her. He had tried asking the badger, but without Daine's claw, the badger god had not managed to find her. It appeared that it had been lost, one way or another. She was not dead, he didn't think, but was certainly not in Tortall.

Now he was on a boat, heading to Carthak, to try to make peace, and avoid the coming war. He almost didn't care. He would have gladly accepted death, just to see for himself if she was, in fact, in the Dark Realms.

"Numair, you're brooding again. It's scaring me." said Alanna, when she walked into his cabin and saw his face. "Look, I understand, I know you're thinking about her, we all are. But you need to snap out of it, by the gods. We are meeting the man who tried to have you executed, and searched for you for years in order to kill you, in a few hours. If you do something stupid, and get killed, she will never forgive you."

Looking up at her from his seat on his bed, he said miserably, "And what if she is dead? No one has heard from or of her in a year, Alanna. She would never let all of us worry like this."

"If she is dead, then, she would be a goddess. You know that. And if she were a goddess, she would have had the badger tell us she was alright, even if she herself couldn't come. So shut up, get dressed and meet me on the deck."

That night, when the welcoming feast is over—

Numair stumbled into his rooms, overtired from the long introductions and trying to pretend he was not worried about Daine for Alanna. Not looking where he was going, he collided with the slave they had sent to clean his room, sending her to the floor. Mumbling apologies, he tried to help her up, despite her cowering and repeated, "So sorry, Nobility, please do not punish me, it will never happen again, please, Nobility, spare me…"

Ignoring this, he helped her to her feet, and saw her face. Shocked, he stumbled back, now fully awake. It couldn't be… "Daine?"

Sorry for the short chapter, more to come. Just imagine me holding a sign saying,"Will write for reviews", and you have my desperation for reviews pretty much summed up. First one to review gets mentioned in my next chapter!


	2. The Flashback

"Daine?" Numair said stupidly. "Daine?"

Daine's POV-

Daine looked up in fright. She had no idea why this man, this Nobility, was addressing her with her old name, her real name. It had been beaten into her not to respond to the name she was called by in Tortall. She was now Mara, of Carthak, a slave. She suddenly recognized the man. It was Numair, the one who had trained her in her wild magic, but she had none now. She had refused to use it, to let the emperor know she had it, so she stuffed it away, into the corner of her soul. She hadn't used it since, and she could no longer heal, shape shift, or even talk to animals. Fearing his disappointment, she fled, and ignored his attempts to call her back.

_She rode on Cloud, with the wolves streaming past her on either side. Cloud suddenly paused. _This reeks of a trap, _Cloud said. _They are waiting for us._ Daine responded quickly, trying to battle her own feelings of doubt. _They can't be, Cloud. The only ones who knew about our plan were you, me, and the wolves. None of them would rat us out, they can't. _Still unhappy, Cloud walked on. Suddenly, they were surrounded. A man spoke, from the cover of the trees. _If you shoot, or call the animals, we have a dozen crossbows pointed at your pony and the wolves. Surrender. _Unable to willingly let the animals be shot, even at the cost of her own life, Daine dropped her bow and told the animals to run. The wolves obeyed, sleek muscles working rapidly under coarse fur, but Cloud stayed._ I won't leave, _she said when Daine told her to run again. She stayed to the end. The men came out, tying her wrists and ankles together, and threatening her with Cloud's death if she misbehaved. Cloud was threatened with Daine's death._

Alanna's POV—

She feared the worst when Numair came charging into her room, and instantly sent up a listening shield.

"She's here!", he exclaimed instantly, before she could ask what was the matter. "Daine is a slave, she's here, all this time we were looking for her she has been here! Oh gods, how could this happen, how could she be a slave, we have to get her out, before she is hurt worse."

"What!" Alanna yelled. "Here? Daine? A slave!" Numair nodded. "We have to get her to tell us what happened!"

"I already tried. She was in my room, cleaning, when I ran into her and knocked her down accidently. She was terrified, and started apologizing to the 'Nobility'. I have no idea what happened to her, but she has been… mistreated. Alanna, I saw whip marks on her. Some of them were fresh, too."

"Oh, no."

"What I don't know, though, is how she was kept quiet, and how they stopped the animals from revolting…"

The next morning—

As Daine was coming in to clean the visiting Nobility's rooms, she heard a sound, and then she was unable to move. Numair and the other Nobility, the one whose rooms she was cleaning, came into the room, and the Nobility stared at her. Then, with a rush of movement, both flung themselves at her, but stopped the second they realized she had fallen to the floor on her knees and was begging them not to hurt her.

"Daine, what's wrong?" asked Alanna. "We would never hurt you, you know that…" She trailed off as Daine began to speak, rather timidly. "My lady, I don't know what I have done to offend you, just please don't, I'm begging you, please, no, no, no, not that."

"Daine, don't you remember me?" she asked, stunned. Daine trembled. "I don't know what you mean, I'm just a slave, please don't, please, please…" Puzzled, Numair asked her what she didn't want, and her answer rang through him.

"Please don't remind me of what I have lost."

**Sorry, people, about the second cliffy ending in a row, and the shortness of the chapters, but part three should be up in the next couple days, and I may have another story in the works...**


	3. The Offer

"What do you mean, 'don't remind you of what you have lost?'", Alanna asked. "What have you lost?"

"Everything. My freedom, Cloud, Kitten, everyone in Tortall, my friends, and my wild magic. Everything is gone." said Daine, tearfully. A look crossed her face, but she reverted into a slave once more. "Nobility, please excuse this unworthy one's behavior, it will never happen again." With that, she escaped.

Later, before lunch—

"Numair, what in all the gods' names happened to her, so that she is treating her best friends like strangers? And what did she mean by losing her wild magic? Can that happen?" Alanna asked, worried.

"Yes, the _Scroll of the Wild_ says that under extreme torture, or horrifying conditions, a wild mage can smother her magic in order to prevent all the animals from revolting, or having to live with her pain. If the conditions are prolonged, it can become permanent. If she was… tortured… then it could very well have cost her her wild magic, to keep the animals from getting killed." Numair said carefully, trying to contain his grief at the thought of her being injured, let alone repeatedly.

"You believe", Alanna whispered, "that Daine cut off her wild magic, on _purpose?"_ She shook her head disbelievingly. "No wonder she is heart-broken. Her wild magic is all she ever had that was wholly her own."

"She has other things! Cloud, and Kitten, and her friends, and everyone else in Tortall who cares about her, including me! Why can't she just come back with us?"

"Numair, you know better. Cloud and Kitten are only related to her by her magic, and everyone else in Tortall only cares about her connection to animals. She probably can't even talk to animals anymore. I wonder if she thinks she would no longer be welcome in court, and you, you're her teacher, her teacher of a magic she no longer has!"

Just then, a courtier walked up, and told them lunch was beginning.

Daine's POV—

She had no idea how the Nobility had found her. It had been obvious to her they had been searching a long time, possibly even since the minute they had found out she was missing. She had no idea. Once the Masters found out what she could do, and she had no doubt they would, they would beat her until she gave in and used her friends for war. She could not allow that. To prevent this, all of her wild magic had been stuffed inside her, and the torture she received when she was sold from Dunlath to Carthak made it permanent.

One thing stuck in her mind, though. 'I can't let them take me. If they do, they might find out about my magic, and even if they don't, Cloud, Zek and Kitten will have to pay the price; Ozorne will make sure of that. I won't let that happen.' Just then, another slave walked up, with the serving assignments for that night's meal. 'Oh, no…'

Numair's POV—

Sure that it was a sign from the gods, Numair saw that Daine was serving them at that night's banquet. As she walked up with the first dish, he told her "Slave, my room is not clean. I want it spotless. Do so." As a slave, she had no choice but to comply and say "Yes, Nobility." With that, she disappeared.

After lunch—

Daine walked into his room, where he and Alanna were already sitting. She immediately began to clean, when Alanna magically shut the door. When the fifteen year old noticed, she instantly showed signs of terror. Alanna began to speak.

"Daine, why are you here? What happened? How is the emperor holding you? And beyond that, why are you so afraid of us?" she questioned, all in one breath. "What is wrong?"

Trembling, the girl replied, "I am here because I am a slave, Nobility. I was captured at Dunlath, and sold here. The emperor is holding me by my slave collar", here she pulled back her hair to show the thick, enchanted iron band, "and Cloud and Kitten. I am afraid of the Nobilities because I no longer have my wild magic, and if the Master finds out I have seen anyone from Tortall, he will torture me so that he can be sure I can never regain my magic, Nobility." She said all of this looking down, and speaking almost too softly to be heard.

Numair was shocked. "He is holding you by a collar, and your friends? That is _it_? And you won't come with us back to Tortall? Just because you _no longer have your wild magic_?"

"Yes, Nobility. My wild magic is gone. I have been unable to shift my shape, speak to animals, or inhabit their minds in four years."

"Why don't you come back," Alanna said gently. "Your friends have been worried constantly, and your wild magic may come back eventually…"

"Nobility, I do not come back because I do not dare. The emperor has had me flogged, beaten, burned, tortured, and branded simply as part of normal routine for a foreign, strange slave captured from another country." At the word branded, she showed them her slave mark, FD109. "If I leave, Nobility, I will be whipped to death. My faithful pony will be slaughtered, and Kitten will be burned to death. I do not dare leave." Daine said all of this calmly, but carefully. "I will work as a slave until the day I die. If I am found to be talking with you, even about my duties, that day will be near."

"We can get you out of this safely, Daine. Even Cloud and Kitten. You can come back with us." Numair said this quietly, but with determination. It hurt him to see the despair in her face, the marks of old punishments on her body.

"How?" she challenged, for a moment back to her old spirit. Then she relapsed into a slave once more. She collapsed to the floor. "I apologize, Nobility, it will never happen again, Nobilities, I will never speak again, Nobility-"

She was cut off by Numair. "Daine, you will not be a slave much longer, and we are not cruel. I wish you to never speak to us like that again." Unfortunately, this only served to make her more frightened of him. He took advantage of this unwanted result, and ordered her. "We leave Carthak in two days. I will buy you from the emperor, and you will come with us. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Nobility."


End file.
